Urban Media Archaeology - Words in Space

Urban Media ArchaeologyNMDS 5539 / CRN 6444Shannon Mattern, Ph.D.Wednesdays 6:00-8:40pmmatterns@newschool.edu66 5 th Ave, Room 005 2 West 13 th Street, 13 th FloorTech Associate: Rory SolomonOffice Hours: T 6-7; W 4:30-5:30 + 9-10pmsolomonr@newschool.eduToday’s city is layered with screens of all shapesand sizes and stitched together with a web of wirelessnetworks, but woven into these modern media spacesare other, older urban media networks andinfrastructures – many of which have laidthe foundation for our newer media. This projectbasedcourse is dedicated to excavating and mapping– both theoretically and practically – the layers ofmediation that have shaped urban forms andinformed urban experiences through several keyepochs in communication history, from the oralculture of ancient Athens to the television age.Each student, alone or in pairs, will conduct an urbanmedia excavation – exploring, for example, howpneumatic tubes facilitated the delivery of mail in late-19th century New York, how the rise of the filmindustry shaped early 20th-century Los Angeles, orhow television cables served as the nervous system ofnew mid-20th-century suburbs. Rather thanpresenting this work as atomized individual projects,however, everyone will plot their sites and networks,and post relevant archival media, to a collaborativelydesigned interactive media map. Part of the class will be devoted to designing the platform by analyzing whichpresentation format is best suited for effectively displaying these layers of urban mediation and exploring thesynergies between individual students’ projects. The class will lay historical and theoretical groundwork for examiningmedia and the urban environment, and also introduce students to the fields of media archaeology and the digitalhumanities. While students will participate in the creation of interactive media maps, this hybrid course will have astrong theory component.COURSE MATERIALSAll readings will be posted as pdfs to the class website: http://www.wordsinspace.net/urban-media-archaeology/2010-fall/. You’ll be prompted to enter the password ___________.YOUR CONTRIBUTIONSOverview Process Blogs 20%Map Critique/Creation 15%Mapping ProjectIndividual Project Proposal 10%Individual Research Dossier + Draft Map 25%Final Map 25%Self and Group Assessment 5%1

Attendance andParticipationWe need everyone to show up regularly, on-time, and prepared to ensure that we havesufficient time for discussion and that everyone is contributing meaningfully to the classexhibition project. You will be permitted one excused absence (“excused” means that youmust have contacted me prior to class to inform me of your absence) for the semester.Additional excused absences – and any unexcused absences – will negatively affect yourgrade. More than three absences, excused or unexcused, will result in failure of thecourse; if you anticipate needing to miss several classes, you are advised to drop the course. Apattern of late arrivals is likewise detrimental.I do not require you to complete weekly reading responses, as I do in most of my othergraduate courses, simply because your work on the individual and group projects should keepyou plenty busy. That said, I still do encourage you to take time before class to annotate theweekly readings, abstract them, and reflect on how they contribute to yourunderstanding of the overarching themes of the course and to your own research process.Process BlogsWe’ll be thoroughly and publicly documenting our process — the break-throughs, thetriumphs, the frustrations, the dead-ends. This documentation is in keeping with the DigitalHumanities’ mission to promote transparency – not only for the benefit of our collaboratorsin this class, but also in an attempt to welcome other publics into the scholarly process. Ourclass will be pilot-testing a new mapping tool, the Urban Research Tool, that we’redeveloping in concert with the Parsons “URTingNYC” class; we intend for this map to serveas a platform for future urban-related faculty and student work at The New School.Therefore, we need to think of our work as laying a foundation. In our projectdocumentation we can not only explain how we’ve developed the tool throughout the fallsemester, but also make recommendations for those who come after us, encourage others toconduct new research on specific topics that will bridge existing student projects; direct oursuccessors to promising collections we found in local archives, but just didn’t have the time toreview; make recommendations for future tech developers to add new features to theplatform so that it’s better able to accommodate the methods we want to employ; etc.Each student will contribute to our collective “process blog.” If you already have your ownblog, you’re welcome to post your UMA work to your own blog, but we’ll need to work out howto aggregate all relevant external blog posts to our central UMA blog. All other students are welcome topost directly to the UMA blog.If you have an epiphany, if you stumble upon an amazing special collection or interviewsubject, if you find yourself questioning your topic selection or your mapping techniques, ifyou have a cartographic break-through, if you hit a brick wall – if anything significanthappens that you think offers an occasion for “critical self-consciousness” (Johanna Drucker2004) or an opportunity to “illuminate the shadowy process of critical thinking, encouragingreaders not only to digest finished works, but also to learn from and evaluate the mechanismsof their creation” (Avi Santo and Christopher Lucas 2009) – blog it, please. Each student willbe expected to post regularly – at least five times throughout the semester, and atleast once every three weeks; at least one post should reflect on your finished, or nearfinished,semester project. Your posts should be substantial (roughly 300 words) and, ifappropriate, should include relevant media. Make sure to keep the tone professional – notconfessional. Please make sure, too, to address the relevance of the class readings andin-class discussions and activities. Your blog contributions are worth 20% of yourfinal grade.Map CritiqueAnd CreationBecause our final project will be an interactive map, we’ll dedicate some time in most of ourclasses to presenting and critiquing several (canonical/ exemplary/ experimental/overwrought/ elegant/ etc.) maps in a variety of formats, to see what they do right andwrong, what they illuminate and obfuscate, how they integrate form and content effectively2

and poorly, and what lessons we can take away from them and apply, or avoid, in our ownprojects.On the course website we’ll maintain an “atlas” of relevant mapping projects, from whichyou can choose one project to critique. You’re also welcome to propose additions to thecollection. You’re encouraged to choose a map that both pertains to the criticalissues raised in the week’s readings and raises practical questions that we’llneed to address as we create our own map(s). Please consult with the other presenters for theweek to work out who’s chosen which projects.Your ten-minute presentation should consist of two parts: (1) a critique and (2) a criticalcreativeapplication prototype. The critique should focus on a single mapping project andshould address some of these issues. As the weeks progress, and as we explore more and moremapping projects and hone our methods for critical evaluation, we’ll generate a list of “bestpractices” or an evaluation rubric (see this) with which we can critique and refine our ownproject at the end of the semester. Your application is a critical-creative attempt to apply toyour own research project the same effective and/or ineffective techniques used in the mapyou’ve critiqued. You might choose to exaggerate the failures of that map by creating aparody – or you might choose to blend in helpful features from some of the other maps in theatlas in order to productively consider mapping techniques that might aid in your own work.Be sure to identify what projects inspired you and why, and how and where we can see thoseprojects’ influence in your map. Your application can take virtually any form and format –from a quilted map to a hand-dissected map to an audio map. Keep in mind that this is onlya prototype – a rough sketch, a maquette, a “napkin drawing”; we’re more concerned in thiscontext with the ideas behind your project than with your execution.Before class begins, post your 600- to 900-word text – which should encompass bothyour critique and the explanation of your application exercise – along with documentation ofyour application, to our class blog. In class, you’ll have 10 to 12 minutes for yourpresentation; please save five of those minutes for discussion. And please be sure to havepresentation media loaded/booted/hung/distributed before class begins so we can start ontime. Your review is worth 15% of your final grade.Individual ProjectProposals Everyone will be responsible for completing an individual research/production project —but you should frame and execute your project in light of how it might eventually “speak to”the others. We’re building a group map; not a platform hosting 15 atomized mapping projects.In the end, we’re looking for synergies, for convergences and divergences, between theprojects; for projects to form into thematic clusters; and for a “larger story” that the collectiveclass project can tell. You’ll also need to choose and frame your project in lights of how it willlend itself to presentation not in a traditional typewritten text, but in a multimodal, online,spatial format. Ask yourself: what kind of arguments can an interactive map help me make,that I couldn’t make in another format?You should begin thinking about potential topics early in the semester. You’re welcome toexplore project ideas on the UMA website or in conversation with me and your classmates.Before our class on October 6 I’d like for you to submit via Google Docs a formal 600-to 900-word project proposal (you’ll then post your revised proposal to our courseblog). This proposal must include (1) a topic description, problem statement, or researchquestion; (2) a discussion of your topic’s relevance, significance, and/or timeliness (in otherwords, why is it worth studying, and why now?); (3) a tentative bibliography containing atleast ten sources, half of which must be scholarly sources; and (4) types and formats of mediaor artifacts you anticipate gathering or creating and posting to URT. You’ll be expected todeliver a short, informal presentation in class on the day your proposal is due. You’llhave an opportunity to revise and resubmit the proposal if necessary. Your proposal is worth10% of your final grade.3

Individual ResearchDossier & Draft Map Yes, UMA is technically a “studio” course, but our production project is intended toexperiment with new modes of performing and sharing scholarship. Research is an integralpart of our production process. And although ours is ultimately a group project, each studentis expected to do his or her part in researching an urban media place/ network/infrastructure/etc. and analyzing it/them in relation to the critical concerns of our class.Throughout the semester you should maintain a dossier of the secondary and primaryresearch you conduct on your chosen topic(s). The dossier should contain abstracts ofrelevant secondary sources you’ve read/viewed/listened to; scans of original documentsyou’ve discovered; clips of relevant photos, videos, audio recordings, etc., you’ve eithercollected or created; etc.The dossier you submit need not be comprehensive; you can choose a representative sampleof material that demonstrates the breadth of your research and that illustrates the emergingthemes in your critical understanding of your research topics. Each item in your dossiershould be thoroughly cited and annotated (you’ll need this info for when you add yourmaterial to URT), and the contents should then be organized into units (thematic, formal,chronological, etc. – whatever organizational scheme makes most sense for your particularproject(s) and advances the “spatial argument” (you think) you’ll make when you map yourmaterial. Introduce each section of the dossier with a one-page (300-word)summary text, and preface the entire dossier with a three-plus-page (900+-word)statement that summarizes and critically reflects on what you’ve discovered through yourresearch – in particular, how your research topics pertain to the themes and objectives of ourclass.Dossiers are due, via Google Docs or DVD, before class on November 17, and areworth 25% of your final grade. PDF form is preferred; you might try using a publishingplatform like issuu.com. If your dossier contains material that won’t lend itself to pdfpresentation, please speak with me about alternative submission formats.Final MapAs we learn more about one another’s projects, and as we add more material to URT,patterns, we hope, will start to emerge, and opportunities for synergy will present themselves..We’ll form “clusters” based on shared topical (e.g., locations of mass entertainment,telecommunications infrastructures, paper-based media networks, sites of public gatheringand protest), geographic (e.g., various media networks’ histories in the East Village or theBronx, the mediation of Times Square) or theoretical (e.g., uneven distribution of mediaresources, alternative media and grassroots politics, the “remediation” of communicationinfrastructures) interests. We’ll then work collectively to link together our individual projects,to explain their convergences and divergences, to tell the “larger story” of New York’s mediahistory that our individual maps, considered altogether, show. Again, we’ll need to considerwhat kinds of arguments a map platform allows us to make, and what modes of argumentation wouldbest serve our purposes. How can we use the maps form and functions to support ourintellectual “content”?You should make sure to document your decision-making process – and apply ourcollectively designed “evaluation rubric” – on our course blog; this documentation workshould be shared by all members of your cluster. (Please make sure to label or tag your postsappropriately, so we can associate them with your project; we’ll decide on this tagging systemtogether.) The map will be presented in our final class, on December 20, and allstudents are expected to be present and to participate. Because our class will have been a“pilot test” for the grant-funded Urban Research Tool and an application of pedagogicalstrategies explored through the Provost’s office’s Applied Think Tank, we will be invitingdistinguished outside guests to this presentation. I will provide more details on the finalpresentation as the end of the semester draws near. The exhibition is worth 25% of yourfinal grade.4

In addition, by Friday, December 17, at 5pm, you are expected to submit, via GoogleDocs, a 300- to 600-word group and self assessment. You should assess your cluster’sand the class’s success in meeting our evaluative criteria; discuss your work process, andaddress the contributions of each member of your cluster; including yourself. Yourassessment is worth 5% of your final grade.Submitting WorkVia Google Docs(1) Please sign up for a Google account if you don’t have one already. (2) At the Googlehomepage, click on the “more” drop-down menu at the top of the page, and choose “GoogleDocuments.” (3) Once in Google Docs, click on the “Create new” button in the top-left, andchoose “Folder.” Create a new folder named “UMA_Fall2010_LastName_FirstName”(to change the name, simply click on the the words “New Folder” in the blue bar). (4) Now,under the name of your new folder, click on “Share,” then select “share this folder.” (5) Inthe pop-up window, under “Add People,” type my email address, and set my status to “canedit.” Click the buttons that allow you to send a copy to your self and send email notification.Then click “Share,” then “Close.”Please create all written assignments as Word, Pages, or basic text editor files. I needto be able to edit your text and add comments, so please don’t submit pdfs. Please includeyour last name and “UMA” somewhere in your file name.When you’re ready to upload your assignment, (1) return to Google Docs, and choose“upload” in the upper-left corner of the page. You’ll be directed to a new page, where youcan (2) click “Select files to upload” and choose the name of your file. Please unselect both“convert” options. In “destination folder” pull-down menu, choose “UMA_Fall2010…,”make sure the privacy settings are set to “Private,” so only I can see your document, and click“Start Upload.”Academic Dishonesty All students are expected to familiarize themselves with the University’s academic honestypolicy; see “Academic Honesty” on the Media Studies department website. Because oursemester project is a collective one, any acts of academic dishonesty reflect poorly not only onthe perpetrator(s), but also on the class and the instructor. Academic dishonesty will result inautomatic failure of the course.Late WorkAll assignment deadlines are listed on the syllabus. Because we are working collaborativelythis semester, it is important that we all move at the same pace. Late work will be penalized,and extensions will be granted only rarely, and only after consulting with me well in advanceof the assignment deadline.A student who has not submitted all assigned work by the end of the semester does notreceive an “Incomplete” by default. “Incompletes” are assigned only in extremecircumstances, and require that the student consult with me before the end of the semesterand sign a contract obligating him or her to complete all outstanding work by a date that weagree upon.5

PUNCH LISTWeek 1: September 1 Introductions & Course OverviewCASE STUDIES Pneumatic Tubes & Telegraph NetworksNancy Levinson, “Water Underground” Places (May 20, 2010) + Center for Urban PedagogyShawn Micallef, “Toronto’s Corridor of Power” Spacing Toronto (October 26, 2008).MAPS Google EarthBrian McGrath, Mark Watkins, Akiko Hattori, Lucy Lai Wong, Manhattan TimeformationsUrban Research Tool ExcavationSeptember 8 No Class: Rosh HashanahWeek 2: September 15 From Tubes to T-1sFIELD TRIP Tour of Downtown Manhattan’s Telecommunications Infrastructure with Wired andMetropolis writer Andrew Blum; I will contact you via email w/ the rendezvous info. If wefinish early, we’ll probably meet somewhere nearby to continue the conversation.READINGS Kate Ascher, “Communications” The Works: Anatomy of a City (New York: Penguin, 2005):122-147.Shannon Mattern, “Puffs of Air: Communicating by Vacuum” In John Knechtel, Ed., Air(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010): 42-56.Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, “Approaching Telecommunications and the City” and“Urban Physical Form” In Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places(New York: Routledge, 1996): 79-122, 312-336.Andrew Blum, “Netscapes: Tracing the Journey of a Single Bit” Wired (December 2009).Internet Backbone MapsWeek 3: September 22 Putting the Urban into Media ArchaeologyREADINGS Siegfried Zielinski, “Introduction: The Idea of a Deep Time of the Media” and excerpts from“Fortuitous Finds Instead of Searching in Vain: Methodological Borrowings andAffinities for an Anarchaeology of Seeing and Hearing by Technical Means” In DeepTime of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means (Cambridge,MIT Press, 2006): 1-11, 27-38.Jussi Parikka, Interview with Garnet Hertz, “Archaeologies of Media Art” CTheory (April 1,2010). (13 pp.)Friedrich A. Kittler, “The City Is a Medium” New Literary History 27:4 (1996): 717-729.Vyjayanthi Rao, “Embracing Urbanism: The City as Archive” New Literary History 40:2(Spring 2009): 371-383.Kazys Varnelis, “Centripetal City” Cabinet 17 (Spring 2004/2005): 27-33.David Macaulay, excerpts from Underground (Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1976): 46-47, 88-91,110-111. [consider visualization strategies]6

Week 4: September 29 Digital HumanitiesMultimodal MappingAssessment RubricsREADINGS Tara McPherson, “Introduction: Media Studies and the Digital Humanities” Cinema Journal48:2 (Winter 2009): 119-123.UCLA Digital Humanities & Media Studies, “Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0” (2009).(14 pp.)Steve Anderson, “Regeneration: Multimedia Genres and Emerging Scholarship” [whitepaper] Institute for Multimedia Literacy, USC. (13 pp.)Shannon Mattern, “Evaluating Multimodal Student Work” Wordsinspace.net [blog post](August 11, 2010).Todd Presner, “HyperCities: A Case Study for the Future of Scholarly Publishing” In JeromeMcGann, Andrew Stauffer, Dana Wheeles, & Michael Pickard, Eds., Online HumanitiesScholarship: The Shape of Things to Come. Proceedings of the Mellon Foundation OnlineHumanities Conference (Rice University Press, 2010). (17 pp.)Shannon Mattern, “Critiquing Maps” Wordsinspace.net [blog post] (August 29, 2010).Text TBD on cartographic critique (possibly an excerpt from Denis Wood and John Fels, TheNatures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 2008) or James Corner, “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critiqueand Invention” In Denis Cosgrove, Ed., Mappings (London: Reaktion, 1999): 231-52.FILM Charles and Ray Eames, Powers of TenMULTIMODAL PROJECTS Selections from Vectors – especially the “Mobility” Issue, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (Fall 2005) andTrevor Paglen, Craig Dietrich & Raegan Kelly, “Unmarked Planes and HiddenGeographies” Vectors 2:2 (Winter 2007).MAPS HyperCitiesStanford Spatial History ProjectWeek 5: October 6 Researching and Mapping Along X, Y, and Z AxesMAPS Pleriplurban34 North 118 WestREADINGS Barbara Heck, Elizabeth Preston & Bill Svec, “A Survival Guide to Archival Research”American Historical Association (December 2004).Shannon Mattern, “From Post Offices to Radiograms: Local Primary Resources on UrbanMedia History” Wordsinspace.net [blog post] (July 20, 2010).Alison Sant, “Redefining the Basemap” Intelligent Agent 6:2 (n.d.). (7 pp.)Ole Bouman, “Re:Orientation” In Janet Adams & Peter Hall, Eds., Else/Where: Mapping NewCartographies of Networks and Territories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006):Jeremy Hight, “Rhizomatic Cartography: Modulated Mapping and the Spatial Net” NeMe(May 5, 2009). (7 pp.)Jesse Shapins & Brian House, “Designers and Citizens as Critical Media Artists” UrbanOmnibus (July 1, 2009). (10 pp.)Demo of Other Mapping Tools / Demo of Urban Research ToolShort Presentations of Project Proposals7

For much of the middle portion of class, I’ll be tailoring each week’s itinerary to support individual students’ research projects. In consultationwith each of you, I’ll choose a short reading, listening or viewing exercise that pertains to your project (you can find some relevant resources inmy Zotero library). This will allow us all to develop some common basis of understanding so that we’re better equipped to offer helpful feedbackto one another. If there’s a critical mass of interest in a particular topic, we might invite guest speakers or organize field trips as needed.We’ll begin each class with three or four map presentations.Week 6: October 13 Modules + URT: Upload Test & Defining New Custom Research FormatsMAPS Student Presentations: Choose from Atlas on Class WebsiteREADINGS TBDWeek 7: October 20 Modules + URT: Creating PathsMAPS Student Presentations: Choose from Atlas on Class WebsiteREADINGS TBDWeek 8: October 27 ModulesMAPS Student Presentations: Choose from Atlas on Class WebsiteREADINGS TBDWeek 9: November 3 ModulesMAPS Student Presentations: Choose from Atlas on Class WebsiteREADINGS TBDWeek 10: November 10 Modules + URT Filer Demo (Finding Connections)MAPS Student Presentations: Choose from Atlas on Class WebsiteREADINGS TBDWeek 11: November 17 Draft Map PresentationsAll students will deliver short presentations of their research. Each will receive feedback.Networking NodesThrough various group exercises (e.g., “speed dating,” interviewing one another) students willexplore possible connections between their own projects and their classmates’. We’lldiscuss what we might learn by layering or networking these projects on the map — andwhat modes of presentation can help us to convey these larger, multi-project arguments.November 24 No Class: ThanksgivingWeek 12: December 1 Final ModuleGroup WorkWeek 13: December 8 Group WorkIf there is interest, we could reschedule our Mock Final Presentation for the weekend of December 10-12 hold our final presentation, for theProvosts and other guests, on December 15, and cancel class on December 20.Week 14: December 15 Mock Final PresentationWeek 15: December 20 Final Exhibition Presentation & Discussion8